The Utility of Phatak’s Repertory in Acute Prescribing

The author explains the special usefulness of Phatak’s repertory, using case histories to illustrate.

INTRODUCTION:

Acute prescribing has always posed hurdles for a neo-homeopath, who is trying his luck (!) in this wonderful healing system. Such difficult situations often present right as you begin medical school. Relatives, neighbors, friends and foes meet you to seek relief from their cough, cold, diarrhea or headaches. Not knowing the process, one can get lost in the jumble of remedies, and lose confidence in oneself, unreasonably.

Fortunately, materia medica and repertories come to our rescue. Still, the representative volumes and the philosophy can make one sick. To help us in such situations, PHATAK’S REPERTORY presents a helping hand, a true friend in need and a valuable guide during acute prescribing.

REPERTORY CONSTRUCTION:

The repertory is primarily based on BOGER’S SYNOPTIC KEY, and functions on the same philosophy. The most important feature of the repertory is its alphabetical arrangement of the rubrics, thus making it the easiest way to reach our destination. Another unique feature is the inclusion of Indian food items. Thus, one can identify with the picture presented by the patient in a more refined manner.

There is a mythological tale from ‘Ramayana’ about lady Shabari. She tasted each and every berry, to be sure that it was sweet in taste, before presenting it to Lord Ram. Dr Phatak has done the same thing for us. He has confirmed, tested and clinically proven each and every rubric and remedy before including it in his repertory. Each inclusion has either come from his own case experiences and clinical observation, or has been strongly justified by masters like Kent, Boger or Clark. This is a time-tested repertory.

PRESCRIBING PHILOSOPHY:

Dr Phatak stressed giving importance first to the modalities – and to the causative modalities, followed by the time modalities and later the postural ones. His students have reported that he used to make his patients try various postures to check the postural modification to the symptoms. Further, his repertory has followed the concept of ‘generalization’ and thus, if you can’t find a symptom at a ‘particular’ level, you can generalize it to find a suitable remedy.

ILLUSTRATIVE CASES:

A case of an IT professional which focuses on time modality.

An IT professional, working in a reputed software company, consulted for the complaint of severe headache, which was part of an acute exacerbation of chronic sinusitis. His eyes were red, his nose congested and he complained of a severe throbbing headache in the frontal region.

Obviously I prescribed BELLADONNA, which did not relieve him at all in 24 hours. He came the next day with the same symptoms, but this time the anxiety had increased. He had to appear for a job interview for U.S. VISA a couple of days later, and was worried about his sick appearance. Those were the days when ‘swine flu’ cases were at their peak, and he thought his red eyes and nose would make the embassy officials worry about his health status and deny him the job.

On further questioning about any specific time modality, he added that the headache peculiarly starts at around 10:00 am and lasts till 4:00 pm. It was a characteristic time modality.

I referred to Phatak’s repertory:

Just two doses of NATRUM MUR 200 at 12 hrs interval were enough to relieve his entire symptomatology. He was quite healthy and fresh for his interview and is currently in the US.

2. A case of pulmonary hypertension

Mr DVK, 66 yrs, was an old associate of mine. He was working as a public relations officer at the same hospital where I had done my internship. We knew each other for a long time. He had seen my practice since its beginning and used to consult me for seasonal coughs and colds.

Last August his wife called me for a consultation. DVK had been admitted in the ICU of our hospital with an acute exacerbation of pulmonary hypertension. His condition was quite critical since it was difficult to stabilize his oxygen saturation without external life supports. His treating physician did not believe in homeopathy and was thus not allowing adjunct medication. Finally, DVK’s wife asked me to prescribe on the symptom picture she gave me.

DVK had become quite restless since the attack. He was constantly restless and had not slept calmly since beng in ICU. It was difficult for him to lie down and the only position that was comfortable for him, was a propped-up posture, keeping three or four pillows below his head. There was a marked loss of thirst since the attack.

I used the facility of diagnostic / clinical rubrics in the Phatak’s repertory:

Both ARS and ANTIM TART came up strongly as the remedies covering the totality. A synthetic prescription was done with – ANTIM ARS 200 [since it had a characteristic symptom totality with a mental concomitant] to be given four times a day.

Within two days of starting homeopathic medication, his oxygen saturation started stabilizing (which it hadn’t done before), his restlessness subsided and he was taken out of ICU within the same week.

3. A baby with constipation

A three month old male baby was brought with complaints of severe difficulty in passing stools, even though they were soft. The complaint had started since the child was shifted to ‘Lactogen’ an artificially formulated milk, when the mother was unable to feed the child due to long working hours. The child used to cry a lot while passing motions, which were surprisingly never hard in nature.

Along with the gastric complaints, the child was seen moaning constantly even while playing with the dolls in my consulting room. When asked about it, his mother said , “he moans constantly even during sleep or while playing. There is no fixed reason for the moaning. It just goes on almost as a background music. We have got used to it now!”

I searched Phatak’s repertory:

As indicated by the reportorial result, ALUMINA was prescribed in 200 potency to be given once a week. After the first dose, the moaning stopped and the child started passing stools comfortably. The dose was repeated in the next week as well, to complete the curative action.

The availability of a particular rubric “Constipation in bottle-fed, artificial food-fed children” was the key to the case solution, which was the highlight of the repertory. Most of the time, it is said that Phatak’s repertory does not represent particular symptoms well, but this case was an eye-opener. One must know where to find the symptoms!

4. An acute exacerbation of an asthmatic.

A female college student presented with an acute exacerbation of asthma. She was quite breathless and gave following totality: The attack had started after getting exposed to cold weather while on a tour. She had also observed that during her travels, she had only few fruits with her to eat and whenever she ate guava, her breathlessness got aggravated, but not with any other fruits. She observed a marked increase in appetite, but sweet things that were her all time favorites were not preferred, to her surprise. She said, “I almost had developed an aversion to sweets during the attack.” Also, she felt significantly better for a few minutes after eating anything.

I repertorized using Phatak’s repertory:

SEPIA and GRAPHITES came out strongly, but the aversion to sweets since the acute attack was the most important symptom. As taught by the masters, any change from the normal disposition, during an acute attack, should be given the higher importance in the totality.

Thus I chose GRAPHITES 200 – three times a day, which resolved the case completely.

CONCLUSION:

If anyone asked me to pick one repertory for the rest of my life, I would certainly pick Phatak’s repertory. I found it the best guide while I was a beginner. Even today, after completing a decade of homeopathic practice, I find it as helpful as it was on the first day in resolving acute as well as chronic prescriptions, especially at the bedside.

It is easy to carry, easy to find rubrics with, due to the alphabetical representation. Once you get accustomed to its language, it becomes your key tool in resolving any kind of case that presents to you.

Dr Phatak has included each and every rubric of the remedies after confirming from the results in clinical practice. The use of this repertory has given me wonderful results, which have confirmed his observations and inclusions. Thus the circle is complete!!

About the author

Amit Karkare

Dr Amit Karkare BHMS, BFP (UK) is from Pune, India. He has been studying Homeopathy and Bach Flower Therapy for over a decade and also learning through his patients and students. As a research-oriented homoeopath, Dr. Karkare has worked extensively in cases with Refractory Epilepsy, ADHD, Infantile Autism, and Plantar fasciitis.

Thanks for your compliments. Nice to reconnect with you. Yes, I do have a copy of the marathi repertory. It had been out of print since years but one of my patients gifted it to me few years back. It’s indeed a great work and I think with increasing number of followers, it should be either re-printed or re-written with additions.

IT WAS VERY INTERESTING TO KEEP IN TOUCH WITH PATHAK;S REPERTORY WHICH I DID NOT HAD THE PLEASURE TO KNOW UNTIK KNOW – WE DONÝ HAVE IT IN BRASIL – SO I FOUND IR IT EXTREMELLY HELPFUL!!!! UNCLUDIND SOME NEW RUBRICS CONGRATULATIONS TO THE AUTHOR AND HPATHY FOR ONE MORE GREAAT ARTICLE!!!!

Thank you so much – here I use a repertory named GESH created by some disciples of Dr Sankaran and also the repertory from Ariovaldo Ribeiro Filho (both for computers)- I woul love to know more about Pathak = THANKS A LOT!!!!!

All your cases are interesting and informative. Phatak Repertory is concise repertory and has quick prescribing remedies in acute cases. You had nicely explained Thanks. I will be more happy to know more cases. I wish to know your experiance of using Phatak’s Repertory in Diabetic and hypertension with Atherosclerosis. Please let me know on my mail id(drnvpai@gmail.com)

I read your article with interest when it was first published so I hope this comment gets to you considering that I’m responding months later. I wanted to thank you for introducing me to this repertory! I would echo your comment that if you only had one repertory to use, this would be it. Thank you for taking the time and trouble to write this article; I can only imagine that many others, over and above those who have responded, have taken it up like I have. Developed skill in using this repertory has produced excellent results for me and a remarkable savings in time.

Dear Dr.Amit, The article has good illustrations, but I would like to point out the following errors in your understanding of Dr.Phatak’s philosophy: a) You mentioned: “Dr.Phatak giving importance first to the modalities – and to the causative modalities, followed by the time modalities and later the postural ones.” This was never the case! He has never fixed what is important in the case, nor did Boger say that it is the modality or any other type of symptom that is always of greatest importance. Here for clarification sake, I would like quote Dr.Boger from his COLLECTED WORKS:Pg.94:- “The relative value of a given symptom depends almost wholly upon its setting, therefore changes from case of case and is only finally determined as to its reportorial standing by numerous clinical trials.” This idea is practised by Dr.Boger & Dr.Phatak alike in numerous of their own cases. When you yourself solve Dr.Phatak’s & Dr.Boger’s cases you will realize that what in the case was important was VERY FLEXIBLE, all depending upon the rest of the symptoms of the case. I have personally solved numerous of their cases and found that sometimes its the Mental symptoms, sometimes the Craving/Aversion, sometimes its the Pathology etc…but all this is determined by the other symptoms of the case. Their approach was a complete PATIENT-CENTRIC APPROACH. b) The cases which you have illustrated here are not Phatak repertory specific cases! These cases could have been solved by any other repertory with the same effectiveness. If you at all you had to illustrated the real use of Phatak’s repertory you could have put up cases which could ONLY BE SOLVED BY PHATAK’S REPERTORY and no other. Let me give you an example of this: Case 1: I had this neighbour of mine who came to me at 8.00pm to get is pressure checked, which was 120/80. The he came back to me at 9.00pm with retching and I checked his pressure which was 200/120! without any apparent cause. Here I used Phatak’s repertory and found the rubric: “BLOOD PRESSURE, HIGH sudden rise of”(Pg35)-COFFEA, which relieved the patient immediately . This rubric is not present in any repertory except PHTK!

Case 2: In 1991 had this patient in the OPD at college who would get ACNE when she ate CHEESE. At that time, the biggest repertory was SYNTHETIC by KLUNKER. I did not find the symptom there, and I found this in PHK REPERTORY: “ERUPTIONS, ACNE, cheese agg (Pg106)”-NUX-V. Helped the patient. NEVERTHELESS, EXCELLENT CASES!!! The best was PULMONARY HYPERTENSION….Super, keep sharing…!!!

Many thanks for your valuable inputs and quotes from Dr Boger. It has widened my understanding further… I do agree that I could have mentioned at least one case that can be solved ONLY with Phatak’s repertory.

dr Amit karakre,s article is informative to turn back and look Phatak repertory with open mind with not like a small repertory instead other repertories.But comment of Dr munjal Thakar is also valuable to avoid fixed ideas.